synthesis of silicon nanocrystals

I visited Kushner’s group from March 30th to April 3rd, 2015, to work on numerical simulation of 2D capacitively-coupled RF plasma for the synthesis of silicon nanocrystals (SNCs). This work is based on the collaboration of Girshick’s group (University of Minnesota) and Kushner’s group (University of Michigan). SNCs can be produced in capacitively coupled RF plasmas. Many experimental studies have been done to understand formation and growth of SNCs within a plasma. However, only recently have self-consistent numerical simulations of SNC formation in a plasma been reported. Our objective is to model SNC formation and growth in a 2D self-consistent plasma of the type reported in Ref. [1]. This visit to Michigan was focused on several aspects of the integration of the Plasma Aerosol Model of Girshick’s group with the Hybrid Plasma Equipment Model of Kushner’s group: 1. Change boundary conditions at the outlet to avoid the trapping of negative ions in the plasma 2. Modify the INEUTRAL_NOPLASMA option to gain a speed-up by updating all heavy species densities, while keeping plasma parameters constant The work has been done with Dr. Aram Markosyan